Activity 3: What did Megasthenes see?
Sources D1–D5 provide various fragments from other classical authors who read, and quoted from, Megasthenes lost book, Indika.
Students need to consider, again, that they are reading Megasthenes at several removes:
- First, we know that Megasthenes' original book is lost, so we are looking at reports of it by other, sometimes much later, classical authors.
- Second, Megasthenes was writing in ancient Greek, which provides its own issues of translation.
- Third, we have to think about the extent to which the meaning of words themselves has changed over more than 2000 years.
Partly as a result of these factors, students will find that the fragments in the sources are at times fanciful, or even contradictory. Part of their task is to understand why this might be, but at the same time they can come to judgements about what might reasonably be accepted as 'truth' or 'fact'. This will be informed as well by what they have already learned from the edicts of Ashoka.
The sources can be used in various ways, and you might initially want to allocate each of the five to different groups of students. Again, these sources are very suitable for dramatic reading aloud, and this could be a good way to assist students' understanding.
Vocabulary that students might find unfamiliar includes: pulses (lentils), 'friction' (massage), stadia and cubits (units of measurement), parallelogram.
Students could:
- Find names of unfamiliar people or groups of people in the sources. Then they could compare these with what they have learned from the Slideshow. Most prominent are Sandrakottos (who students can identify as Chandragupta); Sarmanai, Brachmanai, Hyloboi (described as 'philosophers' but perhaps holy men would be the simplest translation); Boutta (Buddha); measurement); Palibothros (Pataliputra, or modern Patna).
- Summarise the various sources, and present findings to the class.
- Look for inconsistencies within and between the Sources, and suggest reasons for these.
- Dramatise the visit of a foreigner to Pataliputra.
- Make a diagram showing the structure of the society, and where various groups of people fitted in. Alternatively, make a labelled drawing showing various people in society at their work.
- Suggest ways in which the society seemed 'fair' and ways in which it didn't.
- Looking particularly at Source D5, make judgements about whether Megasthenes had actually seen the things described and suggest what might be behind the stories.
Source D1: Megasthenes sees India
According to Megasthenes who, as he himself tells us, often visited Sandrakottos the king of the Indians …
A considerable portion of India consists of a level plain, formed from the deposits of the river … and all the rivers which fall into the Mediterranean could not be compared in volume of water with the Ganges … or even the Indus.
India has huge mountains and vast fertile plains, all intersected by many rivers.
Most of the land is under irrigation, and bears two crops each year. There are animals and birds of all sorts, and many elephants, which are of monstrous bulk, because of the amount of food they get.
Elephants are caught in great numbers by the Indians and trained for war.
The Indians grow tall because they have plenty of food, and they stand proudly. They are skilled in the arts, breathe pure air and drink the very finest water.
All kinds of fruit are grown but metals like gold, silver, tin and other metals are found ... pure air ... and drink the very finest water. These are used to make ordinary things and weapons of war as well.
Cereals are grown, as well as rice and many pulses. Other food plants grow by themselves …
There is a double rainfall each year, one in the winter and the second in the summer … so the Indians almost always get two harvests …
Among the Indians, farmers are highly valued … even when there is a battle they are left alone … and in war Indians do set fire to the enemy's land or cut down the trees.
The Ganges River empties its waters into the ocean in the east where there is … a vast force of the largest elephants. They have never been conquered because all foreign kings … dread the overwhelming number and strength of these animals.
There is another river called the Indus, about the same size as the Ganges. Besides these rivers there are a great many others … which supply water for vegetables and crops.
Source D2: The Indian people
Theft is very rare. Megasthenes says that those who were in the camp of Sandrakottos, where there were 400,000 men, found that the thefts on any one day were not more than two hundred drachmae …
and this among people who have no written laws, and are ignorant of writing …
They live happily enough and are simple in their manners. They never drink wine except at sacrifices and their liquor is made from rice.
Their laws are simple and … there is not much dispute … they generally leave their houses unguarded …
Their favourite exercise is by friction, applied in various ways, but especially by passing smooth ebony rollers over the skin.
Their tombs are plain …
They love fine clothes … made with gold thread, and ornamented with jewels … and they also wear flowered garments made of the finest muslin.
Attendants walk behind holding umbrellas over them … they have a high regard for beauty and use every way of improving their looks.
A person convicted of lying has his hands and feet mutilated … Someone who maims another person loses their own limb … his hand also is cut off.
The Indians do not lend or borrow money.
Megasthenes, in the second book of his Indika, says that when the Indians eat, a table with three legs is put in front of each person. On it is put a golden bowl, into which they first put boiled rice … and then they add many tasty things…
The Indians do not make monuments for the dead … instead, they remember what the good people did and sing songs about them.
The population of India is divided into seven classes …
The first class is the Philosophers, who have the most dignity …
The second class is the Farmers, who … do not have to go into the army …
The third class is the Shepherds who do not settle in towns, but live in tents …
The fourth class is the Craftsmen … some are armourers, while others make farming tools…
The fifth class is the Military … all maintained at the king's expense…
The sixth class is the Managers … who report to the king …
The seventh class consists of the Councillors … who are the most respected … they are advisers of the king … and they settle disputes.
There are two groups of Indian philosophers, one called the Sarmanai and the other the Brachmanai …
Connected with the Sarmanai are the philosophers called the Hylobioi, who do not live in cities or houses. They clothe themselves with the bark of trees, and live on nuts and seeds, and drink water by lifting it to their mouth with their hands …
There are also those philosophers who follow Boutta …
Note that the word 'caste' is not used. In Source D2: The Indian people, the word 'class' is used instead for the different groups of people Megasthenes saw. It is not necessary or desirable to approach the often misunderstood concept of caste at this level through these materials.
Source D3: The king and his city
When cities as are situated on the banks of rivers or on the sea-coast they are built of wood instead of brick, because they last only for a short time … the heavy rains pour down and the rivers overflow their banks …
But cities that stand on higher ground are built of brick and mud. The greatest city in India is called Palimbothra …
Megasthenes tells us that this city stretched to a length of eighty stadia1 and a breadth of fifteen stadia … and that a ditch was all round, which was six hundred feet in breadth and thirty cubits2 in depth … and that the wall had 570 towers and 64 gates.
It is of the shape of a parallelogram and has a wooden wall all around, pierced with loopholes so that arrows could be fired out. It has a ditch in front for defence and for the sewage of the city. The people are the most distinguished in all India …
The king, as well as his family name, must take the surname of Palibothros, just like Sandrakottos did …
The king is looked after by women, who are bought from their parents. Outside the gates he has guards and soldiers …
He leaves his palace not only in time of war, but also to judge causes. Then he remains in court for the whole day, even when the time comes for him to be rubbed with cylinders of wood …
He continues hearing cases while the friction, which is performed by four attendants, is still proceeding.
Another reason he leaves his palace is to offer sacrifice.
He also leaves his palace to go hunting … crowds of women surround him and men with spears are outside the circle …
The road is marked off with ropes, and it is death, for man and woman alike, to pass within the ropes. Men with drums and gongs lead the procession.
The king shoots arrows from a platform. At his side stand two or three armed women. If he hunts in the open grounds he shoots from the back of an elephant.
1One stadion was perhaps between 150 and 200 metres. 'Stadia' is plural. Think about whether this is connected to the word 'stadium'
2The cubit was originally the length of the human forearm.
Source D4: Society in Mauryan times
He who causes a craftsman to lose his eye or his hand is put to death.
… their law says that no one among them shall be a slave, and that all can respect freedom … but that it is fair to have laws that apply equally to all, but allow property to be unevenly distributed.
Officers are appointed whose duty is to see that no foreigner is wronged. If a foreigner gets sick they send doctors to him … if he dies they bury him, and give his property to his relatives. The judges also … come down sharply on those who take unfair advantage of foreigners.
There are officers in charge of the market, others in charge of the city and others in charge of the soldiers …
Some are in charge of the rivers … water is let out from the main canals … so that all can have an equal supply. …
The same people are in charge of the hunters and have the power of rewarding or punishing them …
They collect the taxes, and are in charge of people working on the land: woodcutters, carpenters, blacksmiths and miners …
They construct roads, and at every ten stadia set up a pillar to show the smaller roads and distances …
Those who are in charge of the city are divided into six groups …
The first group looks after everything relating to the industrial arts …
The second group looks after the entertainment of foreigners … they give them lodgings and they keep watch over them through people given to them as assistants … they escort them when they leave the country and if they die they send their property to the relatives … they take care of them when they are sick and if they die bury them …
The third group consists of those who record when and how births and deaths occur, so that a tax can collected, but also so that the government will know what is happening …
The fourth group manages trade and business. It is in charge of weights and measures, and sees that products in season are sold publicly. No one can deal in more than one kind of commodity unless he pays a double tax …
The fifth group is in charge of manufactured articles … what is new is sold separately from what is old, and there is a fine for mixing the two together …
The sixth group collects one tenth of the prices of the articles sold. Fraud, in the payment of this tax is punished with death …
These groups also keep public buildings in good condition, regulate prices and look after markets, harbours and temples …
Next to the city magistrates there is a third governing body, which directs military affairs. This also has six groups …
One group cooperates with the admiral of the fleet, another with the manager of the bullock-carts which are used for transporting weapons of war, food for the soldiers, food for the cattle and other things the army needs … they supply servants who beat the drum, and others who carry gongs, grooms for the horses … to the sound of the gong they send out people to bring in grass …
The third group has charge of the foot-soldiers, the fourth of the horses, the fifth of the war-chariots, and the sixth of the elephants. There are royal stables for the horses and elephants, and also a royal magazine for the weapons, because the soldier has to return his weapons to the magazine, and his horse and his elephant to the stables …
Source D5: Tall tales, or true?
Megasthenes says there are monkeys … which climb up and roll down stones on people … he speaks of horses which have one horn and heads like deer …
They get gold from ants … larger than foxes … they dig holes in the earth like other ants. The heap which they throw up consists of gold the purest and brightest in all the world …
The people who are neighbours to the ants … arrive at noon, when the ants have gone underground, seize the booty and make off at full speed … the ants chase them … and fight with them till they conquer or die …
It is also said in India there is a one-horned animal … the size of a full-grown horse, with a crest and yellow hair soft as wool … a horn sprouts out from between its eyebrows … and it is said to be extremely sharp.
According to Megasthenes, on a mountain called Nulo there are men whose feet are turned backward, and who have eight toes on each foot … on many mountains there are men with heads like dogs … whose speech is barking …
He speaks of people living in the east … who have no mouth and who … live merely by breathing … they eat nothing and they drink nothing.
Some stories are absurd … of wild men … who could not be brought to Sandrakottos because they refused to eat and died … their heels are in front, and their toes are turned backwards …
Or people who … had ears reaching down to their feet, so that they could sleep in them …
Or others who have the ears of a dog, with one eye set in the middle of their forehead …
Or people without nostrils, who … eat raw meat, and are short-lived … the upper part of the mouth protrudes far over the lower lip.